Pumpkins & Halloween Food - Recipes, Ideas and Inspiration

Sunday, 26 October 2014

Halloween is a complete godsend when it comes to getting crafty with food and drinks. There is just so much to play with. Admittedly I'm a bit nostalgic for the Scottish Halloween of my youth with guising, neeps and well rehearsed turns. Not sure that trick or treat, pumpkins and a knock knock joke quite cuts it. However pumpkins are definitely easier to carve than neeps and their burning flesh smells much better so its not all bad.

I was asked to come up with some ideas for the Quality Meat Scotland Good Family Food Facebook Page to put a meaty twist on proceedings. First up Ghostly Potatoes!

Top a ghoulish Scotch Beef Stew with spooky mash for Halloween. Mash your potatoes with plenty of butter and milk so they are nice and creamy. Pipe the Ghosts on top of your stew - or mince - and pop in peas for eyes. Boo!

Foodie loon is the pumpkin carver in this house and has come up with increasingly more impressive offerings over the last couple of years. Not sure what he has planned this year. All will be revealed later on in the week. I suspect there's a wee bit of rivalry between the Dads in the village as to which house has the best carved pumpkin.

If you fancy something spooky to drink at Halloween how about a Green Zombie? This one was a Juice Master Turbo (pineapple, celery, cucumber, spinach, lime, apple and avocado). An Asda Creepy Glass Clinger was used to decorate the glass. I reckon this would be fab with something a bit stronger added. Green Gin Zombie anyone?

Orange peppers are much easier to carve than Pumpkins! Choose ones with a flat base or trim so they sit straight. Slice off a lid and scoop out the seeds and core. Use a sharp knife to cut out spooky faces, fill with your favourite meatloaf recipe and bake until the peppers are tender and the stuffing is cooked through.

There's a fantastic choice of spooky cookie cutters available. Last year I made GingerDEAD men and I've got a new set of Skeleton Cookie Cutters to try out this year. Both of these will be getting used this week at my kids after school class at Inchgarth Community Centre.

Skipping forward a week I've been getting ahead of the game with a tasty treat for Guy Fawkes Night.

Remember Remember the 5th of November with these tasty Bonfire Bangers. Sausages on skewers topped off with colourful triangles of pepper combine to make edible fireworks.

Back to the pumpkins. Do you think we have enough? The big boys from the supermarket will be carved whilst the medium ones from the gardens at National Trust for Scotland's Leith Hall and the smallest ones from Lidl (who have a FAB selection) will be eaten. I'm also slightly tempted to set Foodie Loon the challenge of carving a Neep...

Disclosure - QMS commissioned me and compensated me for my time in creating halloween and bonfire night ideas for their Facebook page. All views expressed are my own.

Lots more Fun Food Halloween ideas can be found on the Fun Food Friday Linky and the Halloween Spooktacular Linky Party

This post is an entry for the Cakeyboi and Kleeneze blogger Halloween competition

Claire is a Scottish food and travel writer based in Aberdeen who has been blogging her edible adventures since 2012. A mum of two and wife of one, she is passionate about cooking from scratch, seasonality, food education and family-friendly recipes.